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To get, and thrive in, your dream career, you need three things: self-awareness: knowing what makes you happy, what drags you down, areas of strength and areas for growth; self-empowerment: having an internal cheerleader (rather than an inner critic) and overcoming those limiting belief self-fulfilment: having a PLAN! Knowing what you want to achieve, and how to get there - with balance, and without stress. Over the last few weeks my blog has covered Pillars one and two, and

12th October 2016. I am sitting on a tiny chair, my knees wedged uncomfortably under a bright blue table. Around me, the friendly (but as yet unknown) faces of the ladies of Horringer Pre-School Management Committee AGM. And the Chair has just joked, summing up a successful year of fundraising: "all we need now is a new building!". For the first time that meeting, I spoke up: "how much do we need...?" And that was the beginning. On Monday, 14th September 2020, we open the doo

It's been a big week: my new community building, that I have spent the last nearly 4 years working towards, was delivered to site. As this is published, the builders are working on completing the interior, cladding the exterior, and finishing the paths, fencing, and landscaping. We are so nearly there! 😁🎉 This is been a personal labour of love. It is my "other job", that I actually had before I even started my business, and to which I have been devoting the most enormous am

The enforced life change of lockdown has offered all of us a chance to see our lives and careers in a different light: from adapting to the good and bad bits of office working, to learning how best we can be positive and productive at home. And the start of the six week summer holiday certainly feels very different after 2 months of juggling WFH with homeschooling... Perspective is a wonderful thing. And although the last few months have at times been incredibly challenging,

This is a time of change. After an aeon of homeschooling, those with kids are now facing weeks of MORE childcare over the summer holidays - without even that structure to help. Others will be beginning to return to the office. After months of being safe at home in our little bubbles, we are going to be back in shared spaces with our colleagues, with all the interesting complexities that brings... So this week, for the return of my #SummerStories series, I talk about the tale

So far in this series helping you to #Finish2020Strong, we have: let go of the past, and dreamed big about what we want to achieve in the future chosen which dream is going to make the biggest difference turned that dream into an actionable goal and thought about how we are going to keep ourselves accountable to achieving that goal. Today is the final part in this series: how do we make sure we achieve our dream, by turning our goal into an effective Action Plan. And this blo

All my life I wanted to be able to run. But I never managed it.  Not enough time, not enough energy - just not enough motivation. ​ Until a friend persuaded me to sign up for a Race for Life 5k for Cancer Research. And suddenly I HAD to train - I'd made this commitment, I couldn't let her, or the charity down... And guess what: I did it. I stuck to my training regime, and I eventually made it all the way around Battersea Park without stopping (although I did get overtaken by

So far in this series helping us to #Finish2020Strong, we’ve: taken 3 steps to a fresh start, letting go of the past and allowing ourselves to dream about our future narrowed our focus so that all of these possible dreams have become one clear dream to pursue. And now it’s time to turn that dream into a goal. But what’s the difference? 🤔 Dreams are vague, loose ideas of something you want at some point. Goals are something specific that you are working towards by a particula

Following last week's post (How to #Finish2020Strong with 3 Steps to a Fresh Start), you now have your DREAMS of what you want to achieve by the end of 2020. (And if you don't, revisit the post to discover them... 😉 ) ❓But do you try to achieve all of them? ❓Or do you focus in on a few, or even one? ❓How do you know which dream to follow? Because as Colin Powell said, "A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work." So where do you

We've all been through a difficult time over the last few months. Some more than others, it's true. But for all of us, the world will never be quite the same again: watching people shaking hands on The Repair Shop makes me wince slightly 😬 the idea of going on an aeroplane is scary, but in a very different way than when I used to get panic attacks 😱 and I hope I will never take full supermarket shelves for granted again... But, although coronavirus is still out there, the w